Mixed rink punches ticket to ACAC Championship, but Griffins men's and women's teams fall short

Austin Connelly, For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – A strong performance by the newly-formed mixed Griffin's curling team – the only MacEwan squad to punch its ticket to the ACAC Championship – highlighted an intense final day of the Winter Regional on Sunday that saw both Griffins men's and women's teams on the wrong side of dramatic finishes. 

"Our consistency wasn't as good the first one," said head coach Tom Kitagawa, comparing the weekend at Avonair Curling Club to November's Fall Regional. "At the Fall Regional, our consistency overall from top to bottom seemed to be better."

The mixed team of skip Rebecca Bartz, third Brandt Holt, second Brennin Turner, lead Zale Zabolotniuk and alternate Rachael Hansen snuck into the final four spots for the ACAC Championships in Red Deer. 

The squad bounced back after a 7-3 loss to UAlberta-Augustana on Friday night with a huge 6-5 win over Red Deer College on Saturday morning.

After getting back on the right track, they finished off the weekend in a less dramatic fashion than their MacEwan counterparts, losing twice more on Saturday – 8-2 to NAIT, and 7-2 to SAIT – before saving their season with a massive 7-5 win over Lakeland on Sunday to qualify.

Even with the speedbumps, the mixed side finished the Winter Regionals at 2-3 and 5-5 overall after going 3-2 at the Fall Regional. That was good enough to grab the fourth and final qualifying spot behind top three teams NAIT (8-2), Lakeland (7-3) and UAlberta-Augustana (6-4).

The Griffins mixed team will try to keep MacEwan's banner streak alive at the ACAC Championship in Red Deer on Feb. 28. The Griffins won the mixed conference championship in 2017-18 before not having a team in the discipline last season, instead winning a banner with their women's rink.

Even though they entered the season as defending champions, the Griffins women's rink of skip Ashton Simard, third Erin Wells, second Andie Kurjata, lead Taitan Hagglund, and alternate Megan Berg went 3-3 in the Fall Regional and needed a strong bonspiel this weekend to get through.

Megan Berg, left, and Ashton Simard discuss strategy during the ACAC Winter Regional at Avonair Curling Club on the weekend (Joel Kingston photo).

It just didn't happen for them this time around as their bid to qualify fell short when they lost to Red Deer College 8-4 on Sunday morning and needed Lakeland to beat Concordia later to get them into a tiebreaker but instead saw the Thunder win 6-5.

The Griffins finished the Winter Regional 2-4 and fell short with a combined 5-7 record. During the weekend they also beat Olds 7-0 and Lakeland 8-5, but lost to UAlberta-Augustana 8-2, NAIT 7-2 and Concordia 6-4.

That meant they finished fifth, just shy of the top four occupied by UAlberta-Augustana (8-4), NAIT (8-4), Red Deer College (8-4) and Concordia (6-6).

The men's team of skip Riley Ross, third Jordan Geiger, second Brandon Rubisch and lead Joel MacDonald entered the Winter Regional in great shape after going 4-2 in November. But they didn't have a great start, losing twice on Friday – 4-3 to NAIT and 8-3 Concordia – to fall back to .500.

"We had our opportunities," said Kitagawa. "We would just be a little light, a little heavy, or a little inner or outer here and there – and that was the difference."

A win Saturday morning over RDC got them back on track before dropping their next two games, 7-6 to Lakeland and 6-2 to SAIT, setting them up for a dramatic final day. On Sunday, they won a gutsy game against Olds College 8-3 in the morning to get into a tiebreaker against fellow 6-6 team Lakeland. They fell short in a 6-3 loss.

"We capitalized on everything we had an opportunity to capitalize on," said Tom Kitagawa. "It just went back and forth until the sixth end and unfortunately, like I said, they didn't miss a lot – they were laying three, (our shot) came up short, so they stole three."

The top four teams to qualify in the men's discipline were Concordia (9-3), NAIT (8-4), SAIT (8-4) and Lakeland (6-6).

The Griffins men's curling rink fell 6-3 in a heartbreaking tiebreaker against Lakeland to miss out on qualifying for the ACAC Championship (Joel Kingston photo).